WELCOME

Welcome to Windsor Castle, the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. Windsor is one of the official residences (住所) of the Queen, who sometimes stays here.

Audio tours

Free audio tours are available on leaving the Admission Centre at the start of your visit. There is a descriptive audio tour for blind and poor­sighted visitors.

Guided tours

Visitors can explore the history of the Castle through a tour of the Precincts with an expert guide. Tours depart at regular intervals throughout the day from the Courtyard and finish at the entrance to the State Apartments.

Visitors with children

For those visiting with children, a special family tour and various activities are offered during school holidays and at weekends. Please note that, for safety reasons, pushchairs are not permitted in the State Apartments. However, baby carriers are available to borrow.

St George’s Chapel

Visitors arriving at the Castle after 15:00 from March to October are advised to visit St George’s Chapel first before it closes.

Shopping

Shops offer a wide range of souvenirs designed for the Royal Collection, including books, postcards, china, jewellery and children’s toys. Please ask at the Middle Ward shop about our home delivery service.

Refreshments

Bottled water can be purchased from the Courtyard and Middle Ward shops. From April to September ice cream is also available. Visitors wishing to leave the Castle for refreshments in the town may obtain re­entry permits from the castle shops. Eating and drinking are not permitted in the State Apartments or St George’s Chapel.

Photography and mobile phones

Non­commercial photography and filming are welcomed in the Castle. Photography, video recording and filming are not permitted inside the State Apartments or St George’s Chapel. Mobile phones must be switched off inside the State Apartments and St George’s Chapel in consideration of other visitors.

Security

As Windsor Castle is a working royal palace, visitors and their belongings should get through airport style security checks. For safety and security reasons, a one-way system operates along the visitor route.

Elon Musk, perhaps the world’s most famous businessman, has a habit of making statements that stretch the bounds of believability.

On July 16^th, 2019, he introduced a new type of brain-machine interface (BMI), starting from the design of a “neural lace (神经织网)”, a net of thin electrodes (电极) that capture the information from the brain. However, the electrodes must be flexible, so that they do not damage brain tissue and will last for a long time. And to make the implantation (植入) of so many electrodes safe, painless and effective, the process has to be automated.

Mr. Musk’s team does indeed seem to have made progress towards these goals. Its presentation included videos of a robot that is best described as a sewing machine. This robot grabs “threads”, and shoots them deep into the brain through a hole. The firm has also designed a chip that can handle signals from as many as 3,072 electrodes.

With all these technological breakthroughs, the firm now hopes to help people overcome such illnesses as blindness and paralysis. They designed a small device that would sit behind someone’s ear, picking up signals from the implanted chip and passing them on as appropriate. In a few years, using a brain implant to control your devices may be as prevalent as wearing wireless earphones today. Finally, Musk predicts neural lace will allow humans to be combined with AI systems, thus enabling the species to survive.

Though, as this announcement shows, Mr. Musk does have a habit of presenting himself as the hero of the human race, the idea that some machines at least will come under the direct control of human brains seems possible to be carried out. The biggest barrier to this happening will probably not be writing the software needed to interpret brainwaves, but rather persuading people that the necessary surgery, whether by sewing machine or otherwise, is actually a good idea.

“Did you hear what happened to Adam Last Friday?” Lindsey whispers to Tori.

With her eyes shining, Tori brags, “You bet I did, Sean told me two days ago.”

Who are Lindsey and Tori talking about? It just happened to be yours truly, Adam Freedmam. I can tell you that what they are saying is (a) not nice and (b) not even true. Still, Lindsey and Tori aren’t very different from most students here at Linton High School, including me. Many of our conversations are gossip(闲话). I have noticed three effects of gossip: it can hurt people, it can give gossipers a strange kind of satisfaction, and it can cause social pressures in a group.

An important negative effect of gossip is that it can hurt the person being talked about. Usually, gossip spreads information about a topic—breakups, trouble at home, even dropping out—that a person would rather keep secret. The more embarrassing or shameful the secret is, the juicier the gossip it makes. Probably the worst type of gossip is the absolute lie. People often think of gossipers as harmless, but cruel lies can cause pain.

If we know that gossip can be harmful, then why do so many of us do it? That answer lies in another effect of gossip: the satisfaction it gives us. Sharing the latest rumor(传言) can make a person feel important because he or she knows something that others don’t. Similarly, hearing the latest rumor can make a person feel like part of the “in group.” In other words, gossip is satisfying because it gives people a sense of belonging or even superiority(优越感).

Gossip also can have a third effect: it strengthens unwritten, unspoken rules about how people should act. Professor David Wilson explains that gossip is important in policing behaviors in a group. Translated into high school terms, this means that if everybody you hang around with is laughing at what John wore or what Jane said, then you can bet that wearing or saying something similar will get you the same kind of negative attention. The do’s and don’ts conveyed through gossip will never show up in any student handbook.

The effects of gossip vary depending on the situation. The next time you feel the urge to spread the latest news, think about why you want to gossip and what effects your “juicy story” might have.

Mary went through a personal experience 40 years ago that changed her life path and established her connection with Chinese herbal medicine.

Still childless after 13 years of marriage, Mary longed to become a mother. For years she travelled from country to country and visited top experts in the field, but without success.     13    . However, her Chinese herbalist grandmother gave her hope through a herbal treatment.

After three and a half years she became pregnant.     14     The expectant mother’s delight was shared by the rest of her family too. This was the point when she made up her mind to carry on her grandmother’s work and devote her life to herbal medicine research, development and promotion. To this end, she invested in a large herbal garden in the suburbs of Jakarta, where more than 30,000 plants are grown.     15    

Through the application of great effort and resources over many, many years, Mary’s career has developed vigorously, as has her garden.     16    When she was asked whether it was worthwhile to have devoted so much of her life to this research, she firmly responded, “What I have done is to fulfill a promise I once made. More importantly, I want to bring Chinese herbal medicine to all those in need.     17    ”

My dad is my hero because he is brave, skilled, and respectful. I know many people say their dads are their heroes, but my dad _______ me about becoming a man, which is _______ important for a young boy.

Respect goes a long way with my dad, as does patience. As a(n) _______, my dad must _______ people every day, some of whom are nice and some are not. Either way, he _______ his well-mannered attitude.

Dad is not afraid of many things, or if he is, he doesn’t tell me _______ he wants to seem tough. He may not be a big guy but since he works with his _______ all day, he is very strong. Dad works outdoors in all kinds of _______ but the worst thing he has to do is _______ up and work in an attic (顶楼) in the middle of the summer. Trust me, this is the ________ place you will experience as an electrician and when you come back ________, what is in your lungs will make you ________ for hours.

My dad and I have a very good ________. We talk about almost everything. We go hunting, fishing, and everything a dad and son would do. My dad and I enjoy hiking ________ because it gives us time outdoors together and there is nothing like that. He has ________ and taught me everything I need to know about ________.

I am ________ to be the son of Mike C., and would not have it any other way. People come up to me all the time to ________ me I have a good dad. It makes me feel good that a lot of people think so ________ of him. He is a good teacher of my ________ and would do anything for me. This is why my father is my hero.

Police are trying to work out what drove a     38     (wealth) former accountant to open fire on concertgoers in Las Vegas,     39     (kill) at least 58 people and injuring almost 500.

The gunman, Stephen Paddock, 64, set up a firing point in a hotel overlooking an open-air music festival     40     shot himself dead before the police stormed his room.

Some 22,000 people     41     (attend) a country music festival late on Sunday, 1 October, in the open air by the Las Vegas strip when the firing occurred. The first shots rang out at around 22:05 local time (05:05 GMT) and continued     42     a rapid rate in sustained bursts for 10 minutes.

Witnesses described hundreds of shots being fired.     43     sounded like automatic gunfire can be heard on videos from the scene. There are reports that Paddock was using a “bump stock” – a modification（改良）to a weapon that can     44     (able) it to fire hundreds of rounds a minute. There were reports of other incidents at different locations along the Las Vegas strip, but police later said     45     were false.

At 22:15, the last shot was fired. Three minutes     46     (early), an officer on the 31st floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel identified the gunman’s location on the 32nd floor. Officers reached the 32nd floor at 22:17, finding an     47     (injure) security guard, another of Paddock’s victims.